[bioontology-support] [BioPortal] Feedback from Sai Lakshmi Subramanian

[support at bioontology.org]

Name: Sai Lakshmi Subramanian

Email: sailakss at bcm.edu

Location: http://bioportal.bioontology.org/

Comment:
Hi,

I would like some information on using Bioportal API to dynamically retrieve lists of ontology terms. We would like to use a look ahead search functionality in our website. I see that the widgets use this URL:
URL1: https://bioportal.bioontology.org/search/json_search/?q={QUERY_TERM}&ontologies={ONTOLOGY}&subtreerootconceptid=

which returns results in a list format with ~!~ line separators, that we can parse to get the terms, their ontology IDs, definitions, synonymns, etc.

Your new API URL produces a nice JSON format.
URL2: http://data.bioontology.org/search?q={USER_ENTERED_TERM}&ontology={ONTOLOGY_SHORT_ID}&apikey={APIKEY}&subtree_root={SUBTREE_URL}

However, the new API URL does not let me do partial word searches (say user enters first 3 letters of the term), which can be done with the autocomplete URL. I am wondering if we can continue using the URL1 approach, does it use the same latest REST-API? Or is there a way to use the new API to do partial word searches for auto complete?

I understand that you have the widgets for auto complete, but for our purposes, we would prefer to use the API.

Thanks for the time and help.

Regards,
Sai

Bioinformatics Research Lab
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX